Feeding and stacking method and machine



C. B. MAXSON FEEDING AND STACKING METHOD AND MACHINE July 14, 1925.

Filed April 2, 1920 I Ina en??? char-k931i were Patented July 14, 1925.

UNITED STATES I 1,545,913 PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES E. MAXSON, OF WESTERLY, RHODEdSLAND.

FEEDING AND STACKING METHOD AND MACHINE.

Application filed April 2,

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, CHARLES BENJAMIN MAXSON, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Westerly, in the. county of lVashington and State of Rhode Island, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Feeding and Stacking Methods and Machines, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to feeding and stacking methods and machines, and more particularly to methods of and machines for feeding and stacking sheet material, like paper.

According to present practice, a large number of thicknesses or sheets of paper are simultaneously severed into bundles of sheets, the bundles then being fed forward as units into a magazine where they become stacked. For some purposes and for some kinds of paper, it is desirable to feed and stackthe sheets singly. This result can, of course, be attained with present-day machines, with a single sheet, and not a bundle of sheets, constituting the unit. To operate the machines at the low speed for which they are adapted, however, is very time consuming, and when it is attempted to increase the speed, the sheets commence to buckle up and fly about as they are delivered to the magazine, interfering with proper stacking. The consequence is that it is impracticable to stack sheets singly or in small bundles with present-day methods.

According to the invention disclosed in a copending application, Serial No. 540,085, filed March 1, 1922, the sheets are fed singly or in small unit bundles successively past 1 a predetermined point at a speed so high that, if they were fed at said speed into the magazine, they would buckle and fly about therein, and they are fed past a second predetermined pointat relatively low speed,

whereby the single sheets or the bundles become overlapped and are fed at said low speed, in overlapped relation, into the magazine, where they become easily stacked.

The object of this invention is to provide an improved method and machine of the above-described character adapted for use in connection with sheets of considerably greater length than the distance between.

the said p-re-determined'points. V

With the above object in view, the invention consists of the improved method and machine hereinafter described, illus- 1920. Serial No. 370,829.

A plurality of layers of material may be led to the feed mechanism'in superposed relation from aplurality'of rolls, or the roll or rolls and the cutters may be dispensed with and previously cut sheets operated upon directly, as described below. The forward ends or heads of the sheets are successively gripped at 50 between relatively high-speed tapes 12 and a roll 72 that is pive oted at 74 and maintained ,by gravity in engagement with the high-speed tapes 12 or the sheet 8 interposed therebetween. The tapes 12 feed the sheets successively to relatively low-speed tapes 14 and 16. Single tapes 12, 14 and 16 are shown in the draw ings, but other tapes are directly behind, and would be visible in plan. It will be understood that the term tape is employed in the specification and the claims in a generic sense, and includes within its scope other feeding mechanisms, like belts, cylinders, aprons and the like.

The high-speed tapes 12 are mounted over rolls 22, 64 and 66, the latter'two of which are mounted at the extremities of an arm 68 that is intermediately pivoted at 70. The low speed tapes 16 are mounted over a roll 26, driven from a belt 32, and another roll or other rolls, one of which is- 7 shown at 30. The low-speed tapes 14 are mounted over a roll 42 and over another roll or otherrolls, one of which is shown at 40.

Upon the forward end or head of a sheet 8 reaching the point 52, the tapes 14 and 16 slow down its'speed. As the ta. es 10, 14 and 16 are continuously acting, t ey would introduce buckling effects, caused by the rear portions of the sheets, which are still under the control of the tapes 12, being fed at greater speed than their, forward ends or heads. To prevent the sheet buckling upwardly, and to makeroom for the advance at high speed of the succeeding sheet,

the arm 68 is moved over to the dottedline position, about the pivot 70, by a lever 76 that is connected by a link 78 to the continuously rotating drum 80 upon which is mounted the cutter 4. The roll 72 at the same time moves downwardly by gravity about its pivot 74 to force the rear end of the sheet downwardly into th space between the roll 26 and the dotted-line position of the roll 64. Even though the sheet may have a natural tendency to buckle upwardly, therefore, it will be forced to buckle downwardly as shown, and out of the way. As the drum 80 continues to rotate, the arm 68 and the roll 64 carried therewith will be returned to their normal, full-lin positions. By this time, the rear end of the sheet has escaped the influence of the highspeed tapes 12. The succeeding sheet may now be fed at high speed to the low-speed tapes, by which the forward end will be gripped at 52 in overlapped relation to the prior sheet. The rear end of this succeedmg sheet will be forced out of the way, as before, through the action of the drum, and a new sheet will be advanced to the lowspeed tapes. In similar fashion, a third sheet will become superposed over the second sheet, a fourth over the third, and so on. While the high-speed tapes feed the sheets singly, therefore, the low-speed tapes feed a plurality of sheets in successively overlapped relation, one behind the other, as shown more particularly in Fig. 3, in which fashion they arrive into the magazine 18. There, a stop 20 acts successively upon the forward ends or heads of the sheets to limit their further movement, so that the sheets become stacked or piled in the magazlne evenly.

In this manner, the sheets may be advanced to, and stacked evenly in, the magazine, at low speed, without buckling or other defects incident to high speed, though the sheets are in reality advanced singly by the high-speed tapes at quite a high speed. The high-speed advance, for example, may be as high as 850 feet er minute or higher, while the speed of a Vance of any single sheet in the magazine itself ma be as low as 75 feet per minute. The big speed, indeed, need be limited only by the speed at which the cutter will operate safely. The significance of this will become apparent when it is reflected that the average s eed employed with present-day methods,-w ich speed, of course, is uniform throughout, is in the neighborhood ofonly 150 feet per minute. In order to provide for feeding sheets of varyin length, the position of the link 78 relatively to the drum 80 and the cutter 4 mounted thereon may be adjusted as by means of a. set screw 82.

According to the present invention, theresheet at relatively low speed fore, sheets considerably longer than the distance between the points 50 and 52 may be fed singly at relatively high speed successively past a predetermined point, as the point 50, and in overlapped relation past a second predetermined point, as the point 52 at which the low-speed tapes 14 and 16 commence their feeding, or the int 54 at which these tapes separate. or convenience, the first-named int will be referred to as a high-speed point, and the second as a low-speed point.

The same difficulties that are met with in present-day methods and machines when it is attempted to feed and stack single sheets at high speed are encountered when it is attempted to operate upon small bundles of sheets, particularly if the sheets be constituted of very light or thin paper or paper that is not stifi from other causes. The present invention, obviously, is as applicable to the feeding and .-'stacking of bundles of sheets as to single sheets. Al-

though, for concreteness, therefore, the term sheet is employed in the claims, it is to be understood that the term is intended to embrace within its scope not only a single sheet, but a unit which may be constituted of a single sheet or of a bundle of sheets. It is desired that the claims be broadly construed except in so far as it may be necessary to impose limitations in view of the state of the prior art.

What is claimed as new is:

1. A sheet-feeding machine having, in combination, means adapted to feed the sheet in a predetermined direction, means adapted to receive the head of the sheet from the first-named means and to feed the sheet thereafter while the sheet is still under the control of the first-named means, and means for rendering the first-named means ineffective to feed the sheet further in the said predetermined direction upon the second-- nltl med means becoming effective to feed the s eet.

2-. A sheet-feeding machine having, in combination, means acting at a high-speed )Olllt to feed a sheet of material at relatively high speed in a predetermined direction past the point, means acting at a low-speed point to receive the head 0 the sheet from the high-speedfeed means and to feed the past the lowspeed point while the sheet is still under the control of the high-speed feed means, and means whereby the high-speed feed means is rendered ineffective to feed the sheet further in the said predetermined direction u on the low-speed feed means becoming e ective.

3. A sheet-feeding machine having, in combination, a high-speed tape for feedin a sheet of material at relatively high speed in a predetermined direction, a low-speed sheet further in the said predetermined direction upon the receipt of the head of the sheet by the low-speed tape.

4:. A sheet-feeding machine having, in combination, a high-speed tape for feeding a sheet of material at relatively high spee a low-speed tape adapted to receive the head of the sheet from the high-speed tape and to feed the sheet at relatively low speed while the sheet is still under the control of the high-speed tape, and means for'separating the tapes upon the receipt of the head of the sheet by the low-speed tape.

5. A sheet-feeding machine having, in combination, means acting at a high-speed point to feed a sheet of material at relatively high speed past the point, and means acting at a low-speed point forward of the firstnamed oint in the line of feed to receive the hea of the sheet from the high-speed feed means and to feed the sheet at relatively low speed past the low-speed point while the sheet is still under the control of the high-speed feed means, the construction being such that the sheet is adapted to be moved away from the high-speed feed means upon the receipt of the head of the sheet by the low speed feed means.

6. A sheet-feeding machine having, in combination, means acting at a high-speed point to feed a sheet of material at a relatively high speed ast the point, means acting at a low-speed point to feed the sheet at relatively low speed past the low-speed point, and means for automatically separating the two points to permit the sheet to pass in between them.

7 A. sheet-feeding machine having, in combination, means acting at a high-speed point to feed a sheet of material at a relatively high speed ast the point, means acting-at a low-speed point to feed the sheet at relatively low speed past the low-speed point, means for separating the two points to permit the sheet to pass 1n between them, and means for adjusting the separating means to provide for feeding sheets of varying length.

8. A sheet-feeding machine having, in combination, a stationary roll, a movable roll, a high-speed ta e mounted to be. driven by the rolls, means or actuating one of the rolls at relatively high speed to cause the tape to feed a sheet of material at relatively high speed, a low-speed tape adapted to receive the sheet from the high-speed tape'and to feed it at relatively low speed, means for actuating the movable roll and the tape actuated thereby away from the low-speed tape upon the receipt of the sheet by the lowspeed tape to effect the removal of the sheet from the high-speed tape. and means for returning the movable roll and the lowspeed tape actuated thereby to their normal positions in readiness for the feeding of another sheet.

9. A sheet-feeding machine having, in combination, means for severing the material into sheets, means for feeding the sheets at relatively high speed, means forfeeding the sheetsat relatively low speed, and means controlled by the severing means for separating the high-speed feeding means and the low-speed feeding means.

10. A sheet-feeding machine having, in combination, an intermediately pivoted arm, rolls mounted at the extremities of the arm, a third roll, a tape mounted to be driven by the three rolls, means for actuating one of the rolls at relatively high speed to cause the tape to feed a sheet of material at rela tively high speed, a roll maintained in engagement with the tape, means for receiving the sheet from the tape and to feed it at relatively low speed, and means for oscillating the arm about its pivot to separate the tape from the receiving means and to return the tape towards the receiving means.

11. The method of feeding sheet material that comprises feeding a sheet at relatively high, substantially constant speed past a high-speed point, feeding the sheet at relatively low speed past a low-speed point, and moving the rear portion of the sheet, while the said rear portion is fed at the said substantially constant speed, away from the high-speed point upon its head reachingthe low-speed point. r p

12. The method of feeding sheet material that comprises feeding a sheet past a predetermined point, gripping the head of the sheet at a second predetermined point while continuing to feed the sheet past the first named predetermined point, .and buckling the rear portion of the sheet away from the first-named predetermined point.

13. The method of feeding sheet material that comprises successively feeding a plural ity of sheets of predetermined length past a predetermined point at substantially constant speed, successively feeding the sheets past a second predetermined point the distance of which from the first-named predetermined point is less than the predetermined len th while maintaining the constant speed tai feed, and bucking the rear porfrom the high-speed point is less than the predetermined length, moving the rear portions of the sheets successively away-from the high-speed point after the heads of the sheets have arrived at the low-speed point to permit the heads of the next-following sheets lapping the tails of the prior-fed sheets, and feeding the lapped sheets at "relatively low speed past the low-speed point.

15. The method of feeding sheets of material into a magazine and stacking them therein that comprises feeding a plurality of sheets of predetermined length, one immediately after another, past a highspeed point at a speed so high that, if they were fed singly at the said speed into the magazine, they would buckle and fly about therein, receiving the heads of the sheets successively at a point the distance of which from the high-speed point is less than the predetermined length, moving the rear portions of the sheets successively away from the high-speed point after the heads of the sheets have arrived at the second-named point to permit the'heads of the sheets lapping the tails of the prior-fed sheets, and feeding the lapped sheets into the magazine at a speed low enough to permit their entering the magazine without buckling or flying about.

16. A sheet-feeding machine having, in combination, means for feeding a plurality of sheets of material of predetermined length at relatively high speed successively past a high-speed point, means adapted to receive the heads of the sheets from the highspeed feed means and to feed the sheets at relatively low-speed past a low-speed point that is separated from the high-speed point a by a distance less than the predetermined length, and means whereby the rear portions of the sheets are successively moved away from the high-speed point after the heads of the sheets have arrived at the low-speed point to permit the heads of the next-following sheets lapping the tails of the prior-fed sheets, whereby the sheets are fed past the low-speed point in lapped relation.

17. A sheet-feeding machine having, in combination, means for feeding a sheet of material of predetermined length past a predetermined point, means for receiving the head of the sheet at a second predetermined point that is separated from the first-named predetermined point by a distance that is less than the predetermined length, and means whereby a rear portion of the sheet is moved away from the first-.named predetermined point upon the receipt of the head of the sheet at the second-named predetermined point while maintaining the speed of tail feed.

18. The method of feeding sheet material that comprises feeding a Whole sheet at relatively high speed past a high-speed point, feeding the sheet at relatively low speed past a low-speed point, and buckling the rear portion of the sheet away from the high-speed point upon its head reaching the low-speed oint while continuing to feed the sheet at high speed at a point rearward of the buckled portion of the sheet.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto subscribed my name this 15th day of March, 1920. v

\ CHARLES B. MAXSON. 

